Apparently, Singaporeans are shallow minded fools who suffer from tunnel vision. Only a Singaporean would pay money to attend a world class theater performance, like Les Miserables, and then complain about a single scene and have the production actually make changes to the script. If you still have no idea what I’m talking about, Channel News Asia ran a story about how a kissing scene in the ongoing broadway musical, Les Miserables, has courted controversy. The scene, when a man is playing out a comedic section of the musical, sings and dances during a wedding and in jest, kisses another man on the lips. It’s not a passionate kiss, not a long snog or even, excuse my pun, a French kiss. It was a small peck on the lips. But that split-second action has caused the production to make amendments to their script.

Now, I don’t want to delve into the details of what is supposed to be censored in our so-called conservative community. But apparently, that split second kiss made more people angry than the other aspects of the musical. Slavery, prostitution, war and violence seems to be just fine with our Singaporean audience. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community has taken a huge hit this week. In a week where the LGBT community celebrated the Pink Dot movement, there were the horrors of what happened in Florida during the weekend. 50 people were killed in a prominent gay nightclub by a lone Islamic extremist.

I’ve never been one to judge. I don’t believe I have the authority to do so and thus, I never will. I might not agree with everyone or every movement that goes on around the world but that doesn’t mean I’ll throw any stones of condemnation. I believe that we all need to learn to live together in harmony. It doesn’t matter what race or religion you come from, I’m quite certain that all of them teach peace and love. That being said, to get into an uproar over a minute detail in a scene of a world renown scene is just going overboard. Singapore is a first world nation and with that comes a certain expectation of us. We might not agree on homosexual behavior but we need to know where to draw the line. Kicking up a fuss about a musical, you paid lots of money to go an watch is so trivial. We’re bigger than that. All we have to do now is start behaving like it.

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